During my hike, I followed the Schwalm's route drawn on the Komoot map to the beginning. Irritated by the erratic boulder with the label "Schwalmquellgebiet" I did some research on the internet and found the following article in the Aachener Zeitung of July 9, 2003:
Rheinbraun hands over foundling: place to rest
ERKELENZ GENEICS A little fraudulent labeling is included. Because the water that gushes out of the forest floor at Elsekämp in Geneiken does not come from a spring.
The alleged Schwalm spring is an artificially created feeding point for Rheinbraun. Here water is to be supplied to the Schwalm spring area, which is pumped out as groundwater due to the open-cast mining activity in the east of Erkelenz.
The inscription on the boulder weighing several tons, which Rheinbraun set up in Geneiken on Wednesday on the initiative of the Schwanenberg district committee chairman Willi Jansen, does not refer to a spring, but to the Schwalm spring area.
As Rheinbraun expressly emphasized when the stone was handed over on Wednesday, the water feeds into the Schwalm area mean that the water level has reached the level of 1955 again.
When the stone was handed over to many participants, Jansen remembered how this memorial stone came about. The now 81-year-old Heinrich Schmitz asked him years ago to look for a foundling. Jansen contacted Rheinbraun, the company gladly fulfilled the request and assured them that they would continue to help if help was needed.
In the past, the first Schwalm spring was still in Schwanenberg, then the beginning of the river moved to the Dyker Hof, nowadays the first traces are in this area at Elsekämp; just where the stone is now.